128. Tacos with chicken and chilli (Mexican recipe)
Today I'll teach you to make one of the most popular dishes of Mexican cuisine — a spicy taco with chilli. The dictionary describes a taco as "a tortilla filled with spiced meat" and calls it a "light lunch". It's a sandwich made from a tortilla folded into an envelope and filled with all sorts of things: fried meat, seafood and even cactus leaves. So let's get started.
Cooking time ≈ 1 hour.
Ingredients:
- 12 corn tortillas (if you have no corn ones, wheat ones will do)
- 4 chicken breasts
- 4 tomatoes
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 200 g chilli peppers (tinned or fresh)
- 2 glasses of lettuce leaves (or similar)
- 1 glass of grated Cheddar
- salt, cumin, chilli powder — to taste
Cut the lettuce into small pieces.
Chop the chilli just as finely.
Cut the tomatoes into small cubes — the smaller the pieces, the tastier the taco.
Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan. Season the chicken, cut into small pieces, with pepper, salt and cumin, add it to the oil and fry for a minute or two. Add the chilli to the meat, sprinkle it with chilli powder and fry until done.
Now you can cook the tortillas themselves. There are two options: fry them in oil so they're crisper, or fry them without oil so they're softer. It's up to you, but I prefer frying them without oil — then the tacos come out crunchy but not fried. Put the meat in the middle of a corn tortilla.
Fold it in half and fry for 30–40 seconds on each side.
Carefully open the taco a little and sprinkle grated Cheddar inside.
If you like, you can add a drop of hot sauce and some sour cream. Add the chopped lettuce leaves and tomatoes on top.
Serve warm. Like most Mexican dishes, chicken tacos are eaten without cutlery.
Bon appétit!
P.S
If you want it to be really hot — add a little Tabasco to the vegetable oil and chop the chilli together with its seeds.